Spanish views from a small town

Of late, I either haven't had much time to write, or much motivation. My classes began this month, and now my afternoons are all occupied. Once I finish at eight, I don't really want to be in my study much longer. In the mornings, I don't have much time because I've been running erands or walking, getting home with just enough time for a shower and to start making lunch. Covid cases have been going down, though they are now edging up, again. The pandemic has become part of normality by now. It's there, it will be there for a while, and we just have to be cautious and make sure we have all the necessary shots, so that, if we catch it, it won't land us in the hospital. We have been hearing horror stories about how our trees will be nude this Christmas, because of shipping problems. Personally, I don't care. I even welcome it. The delays in shipping are mainly due to Covid, and people who have gone big on online ordering. China has a zero Covid policy, which me...

This past week has gone by rather quickly. And late summer is back again, after the rains of the previous week. Though the nights are chilly, I've been wearing shorts these days. But you can tell we're not really in August because of the way the mornings take a while to warm up, and by how the light has changed. Afternoons are nicely warm, but only after twelve or so, and until five thirty, when the light starts to advise a waning of the day, even though sunset is still around eight in the evening. That will will move back an hour when we return to standard hour at the end of the month.  I have had errands most of these past mornings, and gone walking only one of them last week. Afternoons were occupied by my classes. So far, the afternoons have not dawdled, and I have reached eight o'clock a bit surprised on some days. The littlest kids and the oldest kids are the best ones. The littlest ones seem well-behaved and eager to learn. The eldest are also well-behaved, eager to ...

I haven't walked at all this summer. Partially, because I didn't feel like getting up at seven in the morning to walk and be ready for my classes by ten. And partially because I became a little lazy. Then, the month of September came with things to do and places to go, and the weather started to frown a little bit, so I stayed put until this week. When I returned to my old paths, I realized I should have taken a scythe with me. Back at the beginning of June, the exuberance of late spring was beginning to create monsters of broom and twining brambles along most of the paths. I was the only one using them, it seemed, since the loggers had come through to clear the wood from the fire of 2019. So, the paths had mostly been abandoned for a year, more or less. Still, they were pretty much passable, just not in shorts, which was another reason I didn't go walking this summer. It gets too hot too soon walking in long pants.  So, when I went along my usual paths to get to the princi...